Is The Gender Pay Gap Closing In?

If you’ve been alive at all this decade, then you know that the gender pay gap is a hot talking point. It’s a little discouraging that even in this day and age, women who work the same jobs with men are usually underpaid and by quite a fair price. Although things seem to be improving, there’s still a number of fields and positions where women are lacking, and they’re not paid very well when they’re doing the same work. There’s some good news out there for you feminists: the gender pay gap doesn’t seem to exist for freelancing and self-employed people.

Where is the Gender Pay Gap Decreasing?
In the study of 10 sectors, ranging from singing lessons through to wedding photography the pay gap was almost non-existent. In fact, in 5 of the 10 positions, women actually earned more than their male counterparts. The sample size was 150 men and 150 women per industry. But further than the great news that women are earning a similar wage to men in these industries was that both men women were awarded jobs in almost equal ratios. As more and more women find themselves in the job space, because households generally require two incomes these days, it’s great news to see they’re being compensated equally and awarded jobs at the same rate.

What Does This Mean?
It means that for positions where the jobs are more ‘ self-created’ such as freelancing or being self-employed in their own business, women are able to command the same rates as men. This could be due in part because when a woman works as a freelancer, she is not entitled to many of the benefits of working for a company, such as sick days and maternity leave. Perhaps some of the wage gap in traditional jobs stems from the fact employers are convinced about maternity leave and family planning. Although in most countries it’s illegal to discriminate against women for these reasons, I believe that it does still influence pay and who gets awarded new positions.

Looking Forward
I’ve personally noticed that more and more people are taking up freelancing work. There are many benefits, such as a flexible work schedule, ability to work from home and overseas, as well as potentially earning more money as you’re responsible for negotiating your own terms. I believe that more and more workers, especially women, will start working as freelancers and hopefully, this will create more movement in the pay wage gap in the traditional job market.